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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT DREARY........., September 9, 2007
This review is from: The Narrows (Harry Bosch) (Paperback)
Most Michael Connelly fans will remember FBI profiler and heart transplant survivor Terry McCabe, from the book Blood Work (and some may have seen the movie of the same name starring Clint Eastwood), as well as L.A.P.D. detective Harry Bosch (The Closers, Trunk Music, etc.) currently retired from the department and working as a P.I.. Then of course there is Robert Backus, villain extraordinaire with a penchant for the poetry of Edgar Alan Poe, who horrified us with his dirty deeds in The Poet.
In The Narrows, Connelly brings together all the characters from these previous novels and adds another, FBI agent Rachel Walling, to the mix as she and Bosch attempt to determine whether the death of Terry McCabe is "by natural causes" as reported on his death certificate or, as his wife suspects, was in fact a deviously planned and executed murder.
Connelly is famous for his character driven plots and of course the world weary Harry Bosch is the driving force in this investigation. Connelly does however deviate from his previous works by delivering the story from the perspective of three characters rather than just one. Throughout, he completely involves the reader by leading us into the labyrinth, throwing us a curve here and there, and slowly feeding us clues that culminate with a solution to the mystery.
Although, in my humble opinion, not the best book Connelly has ever written, it is a solid mystery/thriller that is head and shoulders above a lot of the material currently rolling off the presses at some publishing houses.
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79 of 88 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Only Gets Better, May 4, 2004
Looking for proof that Michael Connelly is the best mystery novelist today? The Narrows is evidence enough. On a very simple level, this is a mystery novel about a serial killer, "The Poet," and at least 14 murders attributed to him in this current wave of mayhem. It's also about a complex ex-LAPD homicide detective, Harry Bosch, and a frustrated FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit reject agent, Rachel Walling. The characters are complex, conflicted, believable, and stretched beyond what is expected but not beyond the potential of each soul. Even the two major locations, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, are drawn with such intensity and multi-faceted power that they almost become characters in themselves. The plot is intricate, surprising, and challenging -- but ultimately so finely composed and exquisitely executed that even the final shock in the last few pages, while completely unsuspected, still resonates with complete authenticity and credibility. And underneath everthing beats the heart of Michael Connelly's mission: to describe the deadly dance between good and evil, a dance that comes within a hair's breadth of consuming both, but ends with hope. The book opens with the powerful intensity of the threat of evil: "I knew that my life's mission would always take me to the places where evil waits, to the places where the truth that I might find would be an ugly and horrible thing. And still I went without pause. And still I went, not being ready for the moment when evil would come from its waiting place. When it would grab at me like an animal and take me down into the black water." And it ends with the dawn of hope: "I looked out at the city and thought it was beautiful. The rain had cleaned the sky out and I could see all the way to the San Gabriels and the snow-covered peaks beyond. The air seemed to be as clean and pure as the air breathed by the Gabrielenos and the padres so many years before. I saw what they had seen in the place. It was the kind of day you felt you could build a future on." And in between is the best fiction anywhere.
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34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Michael Connelly All Stars !, June 25, 2004
Michael Connelly's 14th book - his 10th to feature Harry Bosch - is the book he once swore he'd never write : the sequel to "The Poet". For it, he's assembled an all-star cast. Bosch, a former member of the LAPD and now a card carrying PI - is joined by FBI Agent Rachel Walling. Walling was one of the central characters of "The Poet" and - at the time - was based at BSS in Quantico. However, shortly after the events of that book, she was "demoted" to North Dakota. Terry and Graciela McCaleb and Buddy Lockridge - who all made their first appearances in "Blood Work" - also have parts to play. Of the three, Terry's is the smallest, but certainly the most significant. Cassie Black, the central character of "Void Moon", also makes an appearance - if you know where to look. And then, obviously, there's the Poet. Bosch now divides his time between LA and Vegas, where he rents a small one room efficiency to be near his daughter. Things aren't going well between Harry and his ex-wife, Eleanor Wish - who makes her living at the city's poker tables. Harry's first appearance in the book sees him talking to Terry McCaleb's widow. Graciela. Terry was a former FBI Agent, and had previously worked a couple of cases with Harry. His first appearance was in the 'solo' novel "Blood Work". This was only Connelly's second book not to feature Bosch, and was later made into a movie starring Clint Eastwood. Terry has recently died of a heart attack while on a fishing trip, after having received a heart transplant a number of years earlier. Graciela, however, believes the heart attack was caused because someone interfered with his medication - essentially meaning he was murdered. Graciela wants Bosch to look into it, an assignment he is happy to accept. He starts by looking through some case files Terry kept on his boat - one of then deals with the Poet. Meanwhile, Rachel Walling receives a phone call from a former colleague at the FBI in Quantico. A package has arrived there, through the post, addressed to her - despite the fact that it's been a number of years since she worked there. It contains a Global Positioning System (GPS) reader, with one way-point marked : the Mojave desert, just inside California. A fingerprint on its battery confirms that the Poet sent the package, and a number of bodies have subsequently been found at the location marked by the way-point. Walling, due to her links to the case, is summoned to the field-office in Vegas to assist the investigation. With two main characters, Connelly tells the story in two distinct ways. The sections featuring Bosch are written from his point of view ("Without a word, he reached down and grabbed two fists full of my jacket"). However, the sections that focus on other characters are written about them ("Rachel was at the second row of tables, sitting by herself"). While I did enjoy the book - much more so than "Lost Light" - I felt the pace only really picked up when Bosch and Walling started working together. I was also surprised and disappointed that Connelly killed Terry McCaleb off. The Poet seems less of a threat in this book, though this is possibly because his identity has already been established. My advice ? If you're a fan of Michael Connelly, and you've read most of his books, you'll certainly enjoy this one. However, this is far from the best place to start if you've never read anything by him. I'd definitely recommend reading at least "The Poet" before this one - and as many of the other Bosch books as possible !
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